Episode Sponsor
Ignitia is a deep-tech company committed to democratizing weather and climate intelligence around the world. It provides AI-powered weather insights for adaptation and resilience designed to keep you ahead of the storm.
Using advanced satellite data and machine learning, the company delivers highly accurate, up-to-the-minute updates on thunderstorms, severe rain, dry spells, and other critical weather events — without the need for physical sensors.
This is the first in a three-part sponsored series on Ignitia — look out in the coming weeks for a deep-dive into the company’s origins and its solutions suite, plus an exploration of how its capabilities are being deployed on the ground.
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Weather intelligence is one of most exciting frontiers in adaptation and resilience tech.
But market solutions rub up against an uncomfortable paradox — the people who need weather intelligence the most are often those least able to access it.
It’s a tension that today’s guest, Andrew Lala, is very familiar with. As an international development and climate tech veteran with on-the-ground experience in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria, Andrew has seen first-hand the urgent need for farmers in developing countries to get a hold of hyper-local (and hyper-accurate) weather forecasts that empower them to adapt.
He’s also seen how large, supposedly sophisticated businesses — from commodity traders to agrifood majors — are operating today without a data-first approach to weather risk mitigation.
These are all observations he’s bringing to Ignitia, an AI-enabled weather intelligence company producing climate and weather data tools to a dizzying array of clients, from African farmers to huge ports and logistical companies.
In this interview, he offers a blunt analysis of the weather intelligence space, explains why he thinks the market system around climate and weather data is “broken and fragmented”, and gives us the behind-the-scenes story of how Ignitia became a finalist for the UN-backed AI for Early Warnings 4 All Innovation Challenge.
It’s a must-listen for climate tech founders who want to learn from a true climate veteran’s experiences, and for adaptation advocates curious about how AI can drive extreme weather resilience and preparedness among the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Listen below, download from the Podcasts page on Climate Proof, or tune in via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
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We talk about:
👉 How Ignitia began as a science-driven project to improve rainfall forecasting in the tropics, evolving into a global climate tech company delivering hyper-local weather intelligence for farmers, ports, and insurers
👉 How Ignitia uses physics-informed AI and synthetic data to overcome the lack of ground-based weather infrastructure in the Global South, creating highly accurate, scalable forecasting systems
👉 Why weather intelligence is about more than raw data, and why modes of distribution matter
👉 How Ignitia is adapting its solutions to different user needs, discovering surprising gaps in awareness and demand for actionable weather data across industries
👉 Andrew’s plan to expand Ignitia’s impact — from powering early warning systems globally to enabling new climate risk indices and insurance products
Thanks for listening!
Louie Woodall
Editor
